Exotic Flatpicker
Archived Instrument

Exotic Flatpicker Guitars

Ideal for bluegrass jams, flatpicked solos, and driving rhythms. Bold and broad toned with a strong fundamental, well suited for powerful strumming, rapid crosspicking, melodic single-note runs, slides, and hammer ons and offs. Built on Breedlove's original rounded Dreadnought platform, the Flatpicker's rounded shoulders and body depth create a resonant chamber that delivers clear bass tones with great projection. The Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides are the highest quality woods available today – the holy grail of tonewoods – providing a distinctive and dynamic voice with a remarkably well-balanced tone. This fine instrument along with all other Masterclass, Exotic and Custom Sound Studio Series instruments are available exclusively in the USA through our Distinctive Dealers or internationally through our International Distributors.

Body Shape

Breedlove set out to enhance the traditional dreadnought sound, and the results are evident. If you’re inspired by the familiarity of a dread, but are looking for more nuance and richness than usual, the Breedlove Dreadnought delivers. The shape is slightly more rounded than traditional dreadnoughts and produces beautifully full, punchy, and articulate tones. It also provides excellent projection and articulation, so it excels in any ensemble. The hand-graduated top provides the balance and clarity that make this one of the most innovative and expressive-sounding dreadnoughts on the market.

Top Wood

Redwood, sequoia sempervirens, originates in the coastal mountains of Northern California in the United States. Redwood is a dark, beautiful top wood favored by fingerstyle players who appreciate clear upper-harmonic content. Sinker redwood comes from logs that were submerged in an oxygen-free environment, in the bottom of lakes or ocean waters, yielding darker, more striped, and often stiffer and lighter, wood. The tone is bold, punchy, and crisp, with rich, strong overtones. It sounds like a cross between spruce and cedar. Coloration can range from a light pinkish brown to a deep reddish brown.

Back and Side Wood

Ziricote, cordia dodecandra, originates in southern Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Tonally, ziricote is similar to striped ebony, but brighter. The tone profile is rich bass tones for a deep boomy sound, with clear, sparkly highs, and low dampening qualities, similar to most rosewoods. Ziricote produces more clarity than Indian rosewood, and more overtones than Macassar ebony. It is a favorite wood for classical, Baroque, flamenco, and other fingerstyles. Striking in appearance much like Brazilian rosewood, it can exhibit wild landscape-like figuration, often compared to spider webbing, but in shades of grays and olive greens with black.

Graduated Top

Breedlove graduated tops contribute stunning balance from lows to highs. How? Graduated tops are slightly thicker on the treble side, balancing the higher energy treble frequencies with the lower energy bass frequencies traveling through the thinner bass side. The result: clearer, cleaner highs and stable, resonant lows. Because no two soundboards are exactly the same, Breedlove craftsmen evaluate each top for stiffness and density, and then graduate it accordingly. The amount of graduation is customized for each individual instrument. The top is sanded to the precise graduated thickness to achieve optimal flexibility and stiffness. This hands-on process is one of the major contributors to the Breedlove sound.

Breedlove Neck

Breedlove guitar necks feature a slimmer neck profile, which enables comfortable play, even with smaller hands. Unlike traditional dovetail neck joints that require major surgery for a neck re-set, it is easy to adjust the play action and neck angle with the Breedlove bolt-on neck and single-action truss rod. The hand-rubbed, semi-gloss Breedlove neck finish contributes to ideal playability – the finish process alone takes three days, including precise finish coat applications, fine sanding, and hand buffing and rubbing.

Limited Lifetime Warranty

Breedlove players around the world can attest: With consistent, proper care, your Breedlove will give you a lifetime of service – and inspiration. New Breedlove instruments, purchased through an authorized Breedlove dealer, are warrantied to be free of defects in materials and workmanship throughout the lifetime of the original owner. In addition to materials and workmanship, Breedlove offers a two-year warranty on tuning machines and electronics packages. Cases and bags are subject to a one-year warranty covering defects in structure and hardware. Full details on our limited lifetime warranty are available here.